MoonThief

"Day" 32, week 23. A few weeks later

Luke got the itchy fingers on his way "home" from lunch. He had taken a wallet that was lying on the ground, but that just wasn't a rush… He hadn't made any real plays in over a week and it was starting to affect him. He decided to hit up his boys and go after something more high profile and more honorable than pickpocketing some old lady, which he still cringed when he did, and only did when he was short on food. There truly is honor among thieves, and Brawny had fallen out of it when he decided to "quit" and turned Lightning in to the cops. So far they hadn't paid him back for that yet, but Luke was willing to wait until retaliation was less expected. He still had Shadow, Lightning, and Tender (now called Iron Hoof), but it hurt him that his number one enforcer had betrayed him.

They were now openly recruiting, but it's hard to recruit for a gang when doing such a thing requires public notice, and yet cannot be publicized. An interesting paradox that was making expansion impossible. Anyway, they currently had a base set up in an abandoned roadside stand. Tender and Shadow still lived at home, hiding the secret but helping their friends on small hits and by supplementing their diet when possible, while Lightning had officially run away and was also a full time criminal. His family had never done much for him either.

So Luke began to think, which was always dangerous. He wanted to do something big, that would set him ahead on the streets for quite some time. And he wanted it to be on someone who deserved it. He ruled out Brawny. It was too early and the move would be expected. So he ran through a list of ponies in Manehattan: The rich snobby ones that could take a hit and deserved to. He finally settled on a target. Diamond Shine was a unicorn that had clawed his way to the top of the corporate ladder in Manehattan by any means necessary; making a lot of enemies on the way. He had a son, Opal Shine, that had always tormented Luke in school. Yes, he would do nicely as a target. It was fun going after high profile targets. There was more bounty to be had, and it hurt them less. The only downside was that they had higher level security. But with any luck, that wouldn't matter. Luke's crew was pretty good.

"Day" 39, week 23, 7 days later.

It was a pretty good night for the raid. The air was crisp and cool, but not frigid. The group had completed their reconnaissance yesterday and was completely sure that the entire family excluding Opal Shine would be absent, and he would be fairly easy to deal with if they executed the plan properly.

The mansion was a pretty large one, with locked ugly windows, a locked wrought iron fence, and mid-grade security system. Piece of cake. There was a safe with a decent sum of money and valuables in it, likely worth about $ 25,000 total. But unfortunately the Shine family DID believe in banks. They would not be bankrupt after tonight by any definition.

The group waited until the maid left for the night, then waited 4 more minutes before sniffing the night air one last time.

Silently, one by one, Luke and Lightning jumped the fence, crouching behind a shrubbery until Shadow gave the clear signal over the headset. They approached the door, avoiding the gaze of the lone security camera easily. Luke took his position next to the wall and hoisted Lightning up onto the second floor balcony. Lightning snuck in through the cracked window and dismantled the alarm system with remote help from Shadow. It was time. Luke drew his knife and silently forced the door open. Tender/Iron did the same with the back door and they met in the kitchen. They climbed the staircase and found lightning posititioned next to the second floor bedroom. No noise at all now. They waited until all had their weapons drawn.

Iron Hoof busted down the door, the fancy wood distintegrating against his hooves.

Opal Shine had no clue what even happened . One second he was sitting on his bed, looking at mares on his computer, the next he was tied up, gagged and forced into his own closet. He struggled against his bonds, but it wasn't any use. The 3 dark clad teenagers injected the tranquilizer and he went beddie bye.

They made their way up to the third floor and to the safe.

Luke sharpened his knife while waiting for shadow and Lightning to open the door. He began to think again.

Diamond Shine had hurt a lot of ponies in his time, and had raised his son to do the same. But did he deserve this? Yes. Yes, he did. In fact, he deserved nothing less than death for all the suffering and anguish he had caused the working class of Lower Manehattan for 32 years. There were even rumors that he was working with Nightmare Moon on some of his enterprises.

The rage boiled up in Luke. He grabbed one of the sacks of valuables that Lightning offered him, and the group started down the staircase. On the second floor, Luke spotted a grill and smiled. Perfect. This would do. Without telling his friends, he quickly threw Opal Shine out the window. He would not be branded a murderer, at least not today. He opened the gas valve on the propane and continued after his friends. They exited the mansion, and Luke nonchalantly waited for his friends to leave before flipping a lit match behind him and fleeing the scene.

A lot of hate and pain had gone through that wrought iron fence, and stared through those ugly yellow windows for quite some time, but not anymore. The Shine family was ruined. Not destitute: they would survive, but they would never torment the city again. His friends questioned him about his actions, but he didn't bother explaining, and they didn't press him. Today he had settled a personal vendetta, rid the city an absolute scourge, and acquired a large sum of wealth. He rewarded himself with ice cream and a donut.